JOURNAL · STARTUPS
Startups.
From the studio floor.
The venture studio model, co-founding, CTO partnerships, and honest notes on building companies in India.
15 posts on Startups
- Depo
From Solapur to Sangli: How Depo Plans to Own Hyperlocal Discovery Across Maharashtra
Maharashtra's tier 2 cities — Solapur, Sangli, Kolhapur, Nashik — are ignored by metro apps. Depo's city-by-city plan turns that neglect into a regional moat.
- Depo
OLX, Quikr, and the Graveyard of Indian Classifieds: What Depo Is Doing Differently
OLX scaled back and Quikr collapsed, yet Indians never stopped buying and selling locally. The classifieds graveyard holds clear lessons for doing it right.
- Depo
Building a Super App for India’s 500+ Non-Metro Cities: Challenges and Lessons
Super apps promise everything in one place, but India is a graveyard of failed attempts. Building one for 500+ non-metro cities means rethinking the whole model.
- Depo
The Hyperlocal Playbook: What Swiggy Got Right and What Tier 2 India Still Needs
Swiggy proved hyperlocal logistics can work at scale in India. But its food-and-metro playbook leaves tier 2 cities needing a different kind of local platform.
- Depo
Classified Listings for Smaller Cities: How Depo Replaces WhatsApp Groups
Tier 2 India buys and sells through chaotic WhatsApp groups. Depo turns that scattered, unsearchable activity into structured, local, trusted classifieds.
- Depo
Business Discovery in Bharat: Why Google Maps Fails Tier 2 City Residents
Google Maps is great for metros but patchy in tier 2 India — missing shops, wrong hours, no local context. Discovery in Bharat needs a different approach.
- Studio
From Zero to Product in 90 Days: The Sitio Labs Playbook
Ninety days from a blank page to a live AI product in market. Here is the exact week-by-week playbook our Mumbai studio uses to build fast without building wrong.
- Depo
Property Listings in Small-Town India: Why MagicBricks Isn’t Enough
Portals like MagicBricks were built for metro real estate. In tier 2 towns, listings are thin, stale, and broker-walled. Here's what small-city property needs.
- Studio
AI for Bharat: Why the Next 10 Unicorns Will Be Built for Non-Metro India
The metros are saturated and contested. The real greenfield — and the next decade of Indian unicorns — sits in tier-2 and tier-3 towns that AI can finally serve.
- Depo
Local Auto Drivers and the Platform Economy: How Depo Is Closing the Digital Divide
Tier 2 auto drivers were left out of India's platform boom. Depo brings them online on their own terms — no fleet imports, low commissions, local-first design.
- Studio
The Sitio Labs Studio Model: Venture Build, CTO Partnership, AI Sprint Explained
Three engagement models, one studio. Whether you need a company built from zero, an embedded CTO, or a focused AI sprint, here is exactly how each works.
- Depo
The 500-City Opportunity: Why India’s Tier 2 and 3 Cities Are the Next Startup Frontier
Metros are saturated and expensive. India's real growth story is unfolding across 500+ tier 2 and 3 cities — the next billion users and the next startup frontier.
- Studio
Why Sitio Labs Only Builds for India
Most studios chase Silicon Valley playbooks. We made a deliberate, contrarian bet: build AI-native companies designed for India and Bharat first, the world second.
- Depo
Why Uber Doesn't Work in Nashik (And What That Tells Us About India's Real Market)
Uber and Ola dominate Mumbai and Bengaluru, but stumble in Nashik and similar cities. The gap reveals what India's tier 2 mobility market actually needs.
- Studio
What It Means to Be an AI-Native Company in 2026
AI-native is not ChatGPT bolted onto a SaaS dashboard. It is a company whose product, workflows, and economics only make sense because intelligence is the substrate.